White
Rum

White rum. Just vodka by another name, fit only for mixing with Coke or losing in a cocktail. Right? Wrong. While these are typically the youngest spirits in the rum hierarchy, they also encompass a myriad of styles including a number where character has been allowed to triumph over neutrality.
Discover more »

WhiteRum

This is rum’s most sociable face, its most obvious manifestation as a party spirit at home in everything from a simple Cuba Libre – rum and Coke – to the most complex concoctions of modern mixology. But there’s regional character here, too – and more flavour than many people think.

The mojito, made with white rum – one of the most popular cocktails in the world

Making it big

The emergence of white rum as a mixable spirit in the second half of the 20th century secured its fortune – or rather, it secured the fortune of Bacardi, exiled from Cuba following revolution but unstoppable on its march to global superstardom, transcending the category in the process. To this day, people are just as likely to order a ‘Bacardi and Coke’ as a ‘rum and Coke’.

Pale and interesting

There’s a general correlation in spirits between colour and flavour, where dark equals intense and clear equals bland. Good white rum gives the lie to this notion, however, and it’s produced in more places, and by more people, than you might expect.

To take one example, the name of Flor de Caña 4-year-old gives a clue to these unexpected depths: just because a rum’s clear, it doesn’t mean it’s bottled straight off the still. Many white rums undergo a few years’ ageing, acquiring new levels of subtlety and complexity in the process.